Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-03-16
4 SH0pLIFTERS.
| NEW Works. BIG DRY GOODS HOUSES
ORGANIZING AGAINST THEM.

S~torekeepers on the principal shoppin,
thoroughfares are talking Of forming a pro
tective agency against the swarm of pick
pockets and shoplifters who have reaped Z
rich harvest during the busy seasons FOL
several years past. Each year they seem t.
grow more numerous and expert, and al
though one or two arrests are made daily,
hundreds of these crooks" boldly pursue
their vocation without fear of detection. A
Junior member of one of the largest retail
dry goods houses on Fourteenth street com
planned to a reporter the other day of the
lack of police protection afforded store
keepers.
"During the holiday season, he said, @de
t~ectives are employed in all the large stores
This is lone by the proprietors more for their
own protection than that of their customers
Customers are supposed to take care of them
selves and their property. For the most part
the detectives are hired from private detec-
tive agencies. While they are conscientious
in the discharge of their duty, they generally
lack a knowledge of their business. In the
first place they know by sight only a few of
the notorious thieves. Any smart shoplifter
can pick out a detective after saunterine
around a store once. The private detective
usually is too o~ficious, and if a lady happens
to pick up a lace collar or q piece of silk for
examination, Mr.. Detective is at her elbow III
a moment. and any one can see that the lady
is being watched. Quite often arrests are
made by mistake, and this is brought about
solely on account of the detectives ignorance
of the people he is dealing WITH
It is a rare thing for a Central Office deteo-
tive to make any such blunder. Unlike tho
private detective, he generally knows every
shoplifter in the city, and a customer who il
careless enough to carry a lace collar or a pair
of gloves away from one of the counters to-
wards the door, not to steal the article, but
simply to see how it looks in daylight would
not be grabbed by the arm and hurried of to
the station house, But we cannot get the de-
tective sergeants from Inspector Byrnes
office to perambulate our stores all day, and
we ave to employ private detectives OF
course, I do not mean to be understood that
none of these men are competent. Many Of
them are, but the supply of competent ones il !
not sufficient and never will be. In q few |
stores one or two smart clerks are used as de- |
but they do not fill the bill. The re-
suit of all this is a great loss to US. It is not |
50 much what is stolen from the counters, but
it is the loss to customers of their pocketbooks |
very often the hasty arrests by the detec- |
lives. In this we have lost q number of good |
customers.
EVILS 70 BE AVOIDED.
aft lady goes home and tells her husband
hat she lost her pocketbook in such and such
! store, her lord and master is ready to swear
hat some thieving clerk has stolen it and
;orbids her dealing there any more. Again.
t lady is arrested by mistake and sub
ected to the indignity of being searched, the
.hances are ten to one that the newspapers
itch into us and a suit for damages is begun
y the injured lady. All her friends take
heir trade to some other house. Now, thu
elief that is proposed is this: An association
+ all the principal retailers of dry goods is to
formed and an independent detective
gency organized. There will be a central
flee for our detectives, where will be kept
he pictures of all shoplifters and crooks, not
My of this city, but Of all others t%hroughout
be country. There will also be on file a list :
the arrests Of shoplifters for ten years past,
nth a brief sketch of the c~5~oinals Al tho :
cad of our detective agency will 10 an in
oector, and we intend getting the best MAJ Z
/ the business. II
sThe detectives will be changed from one
org 10 duOIueT edCn Week. ana IN LQiS way l
ley will become familiar with the regular l
lstomers Of dry gods stores and there will .
e less chance for mistakes. There will lie .
'mething else done besides watching the
,unters and customers will not miss Their E
1rses so often. do not see how such q sys-
m can fail to result in a big improvement e
7er the present detective service in the y
ores. Take any large public demonstration e
here a score of pickpockets mix in the il
rong, and you will find that the inspect rs 4
police are there with their men, and that if Il
hand is slipped into some one else's pocket
e intruder is nabbed in an instant. You =
'ver hear of the wrong man being arrested, =
nply because the inspectors and their de- =
ctives know how to work. I'll venture to
y that when a Central Office detective really
cans to act on the square he can do more
cd work than any five private detectives
is high time the men engaged in our bust
IS realized the situation. The plan I have
opposed would cost less to all of Us, and
cry one would be better pleased. We have
d it under consideration for several weeks,
d I have no doubt that it will be effected
thout further delay."-New York Mail
Express.